CHICAGO—The developer Fifield Cos. has just brought on Marty Alston as a managing director. Alston will develop and expand institutional investor relationships across the Chicago-based firm and oversee its fundraising efforts for new construction and value-add acquisitions.

“I've known Marty for more than 20 years, and I can tell you that his industry knowledge and key relationships with institutional investors are unmatched,” says Steve Fifield, president and chief executive officer of Fifield. “I'm thrilled to bring him on board and leverage his experience to help nurture and expand Fifield Cos.' long-term institutional relationships.”

Alston was a partner and head of portfolio and asset management at Capri Capital, where he was active in new business development, investor relations and private equity fund management, and oversaw a transaction volume of $5 billion during his tenure. In addition, Alston was responsible for a $3.5 billion real estate portfolio comprising more than 15,000 apartment units and 3 million square feet of office, retail, mixed-use, condominium and hotel assets.

He is joining the firm at an active time. As reported in GlobeSt.com, Fifield just broke ground on NEXT, a 310-unit luxury apartment project in Chicago's River North neighborhood that it expects to deliver in early 2017. And after several years of developing transformational apartment towers in the West Loop, it just purchased 600 W. Jackson Blvd., an eight-story, 106,000 square-foot West Loop office building and plans to transform the structure into creative office spaces and relocate its own headquarters there from 222 S. Riverside Plaza.

Prior to joining Capri, Alston spent 18 years at Northern Trust, where he developed new business and managed global corporate relationships, coordinating delivery of investment management, trust and banking services.

“I am excited at the opportunity to draw on my experience and relationships to help accelerate the growth of Fifield Cos.' vibrant, best-in-class platform,” says Alston. “There are unassailable demographic trends driving demand for well-located, amenity-rich apartments in major urban markets, and Fifield Cos. is an attractive partner from an institutional capital perspective.”